Judaism and violence
Normative Judaism
Normative Judaism is not pacifist and violence is condoned in the service of self-defence.
Nonviolence
Similar to the world's other major religions, Judaism's religious texts endorse compassion and peace. The Hebrew Bible contains the well-known commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself".[2] According to the 1937 Columbus Platform of Reform Judaism, "Judaism, from the days of the prophets, has proclaimed to mankind the ideal of universal peace, striving for spiritual and physical disarmament of all nations. Judaism rejects violence and relies upon moral education, love and sympathy."[6]
The philosophy of nonviolence has roots in Judaism, going back to the Jerusalem Talmud of the middle 3rd century. While absolute nonviolence is not a requirement of Judaism, the religion so sharply restricts the use of violence, that nonviolence often becomes the only way to fulfilling a life of truth, justice and peace, which Judaism considers to be the three tools for the preservation of the world.[12]: 242
Warfare
The biblical narrative about the conquest of Canaan, and the commands related to it, have had a deep influence on Jewish as well as Western culture.[13] Throughout Jewish history, mainstream Jewish traditions have considered these texts purely historical or highly conditioned, and in any event, they are not considered relevant to later times.[14]
The
In modern times, the early
Forced conversion
Forced conversions occurred under the Hasmonean kingdom. The Idumaens were forced to convert to Judaism, either by threats of exile, or threats of death, depending on the source.[25][26]
In Eusebíus, Christianity, and Judaism Harold W. Attridge claims that "there is reason to think that Josephus' account of their conversion is substantially accurate." He also writes, "That these were not isolated instances but that forced conversion was a national policy is clear from the fact that Alexander Jannaeus (c. 80 BCE) demolished the city of Pella in Moab, 'because the inhabitants would not agree to adopt the national custom of the Jews.'" Josephus, Antiquities. 13.15.4.[27]
Maurice Sartre has written of the "policy of forced Judaization adopted by Hyrcanos, Aristobulus I and Jannaeus", who offered "the conquered peoples a choice between expulsion or conversion".[28]
William Horbury has written that "The evidence is best explained by postulating that an existing small Jewish population in Lower Galilee was massively expanded by the forced conversion in c. 104 BCE of their Gentile neighbours in the north."[29]
Kingdom of Himyar
After the conversion of the
Retribution and punishments
An eye for an eye
While the principle of lex talionis (
Capital and corporal punishment
While the Bible and
Purim and the Book of Esther
The
Other scholars, including Jerome Auerbach, state that evidence for Jewish violence on Purim through the centuries is "exceedingly meager", including occasional episodes of stone throwing, the spilling of rancid oil on a Jewish convert, and a total of three recorded Purim deaths inflicted by Jews in a span of more than 1,000 years.[59] In a review of historian Elliot Horowitz's book Reckless rites: Purim and the legacy of Jewish violence, Hillel Halkin pointed out that the incidences of Jewish violence against non-Jews through the centuries are extraordinarily few in number and that the connection between them and Purim is tenuous.[60]
Rabbi Arthur Waskow and historian Elliot Horowitz state that Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, may have been motivated by the Book of Esther, because the massacre was carried out on the day of Purim[4]: 4, 11, 315 [61] [62] [63] [64] but other scholars point out that the association with Purim is circumstantial because Goldstein never explicitly made such a connection.[65]
Modern acts of religiously motivated violence
Cases
In the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the motives for acts of violence which have been committed against Palestinians by Religious Jews in the West Bank are complex and varied according to Weisburg. While religious motivations for these acts of violence have been documented,[66][67][68][69] the use of non-defensive violence is outside of mainstream Judaism.[70][71][72][73]
After
This section may contain information not important or relevant to the article's subject. (September 2016) |
Following an arson incident in 2010, in which a mosque in Yasuf village was desecrated, apparently by settlers from the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc,
According to Haaretz, in July 2010,
Assassinations
On November 7, 1938, a young Polish Jew named
The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir was motivated by Amir's personal political views and his understanding of Judaism's religious law of moiser (the duty to eliminate a Jew who intends to turn another Jew over to non-Jewish authorities, thus putting a Jew's life in danger[98]) and rodef (a bystander can kill a person who is pursuing another person in an attempt to murder him or her if he or she cannot be stopped in other ways).[5]: 91 Amir's interpretation has been described as "a gross distortion of Jewish law and tradition"[99] and the mainstream Jewish view is that Rabin's assassin had no Halakhic basis to shoot Prime Minister Rabin.[9]
Extremist organizations
In the course of Jewish history, some individuals and organizations have endorsed or advocated violence based on their interpretations of Jewish religious principles. Such instances of religious violence are considered extremist aberrations of Judaism by adherents of mainstream Judaism, and as a result, they are not considered representative of the tenets of Judaism.[100][101]
- Gush Emunim Underground (defunct): formed by members of Gush Emunim.[105]
- Halakhic state.[106]
- The
General claims
Some critics of religion such as Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer argue that all monotheistic religions are inherently violent. For example, Nelson-Pallmeyer writes that "Judaism, Christianity and Islam will continue to contribute to the destruction of the world until and unless each challenges violence in 'sacred texts' and until each affirms nonviolent, including the nonviolent power of God."[114]
Bruce Feiler writes of ancient history that "Jews and Christians who smugly console themselves that Islam is the only violent religion are willfully ignoring their past. Nowhere is the struggle between faith and violence described more vividly, and with more stomach-turning details of ruthlessness, than in the Hebrew Bible".[115] Similarly, Burggraeve and Vervenne describe the Old Testament as full of violence and evidence of both a violent society and a violent god. They write that, "[i]n numerous Old Testament texts the power and glory of Israel's God is described in the language of violence." They assert that more than one thousand passages refer to YHWH as acting violently or supporting the violence of humans and that more than one hundred passages involve divine commands to kill humans.[116]
Supersessionist Christian churches and theologians argue that Judaism is a violent religion and they also argue that the god of Israel is a violent god, while Christianity is a religion of peace and they also argue that the god of Christianity is one that only expresses love.[117] While this point of view has been commonly held throughout the history of Christianity and while it currently remains a common assumption among contemporary Christians, it has been rejected by mainstream Christian theologians and denominations since the Holocaust.[118]: 1–5
See also
- Anti-Zionism
- Criticism of the Bible
- Criticism of Israel
- Criticism of Judaism
- History of Israel
- Jewish ethics
- Jewish fascism
- Jewish fundamentalism
- Jewish views on religious pluralism
- Martyrdom in Judaism
- Racism in Israel
- Racism in Jewish communities
- Christian pacifism
- Pacifism in Islam
- Racial antisemitism
- Historical race concepts
- Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry
- Scientific racism
- Social Darwinism
- Völkisch movement
- Nazi eugenics
- Nazi racial theories
- Racial policy of Nazi Germany
- Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany
- Final Solution
- New Order (Nazism)
- Italian fascism and racism
- Manifesto of Race
- Italian racial laws
- History of the Jews during World War II
- Religious antisemitism
- Anti-Judaism
- Antisemitism in Christianity
- Antisemitism in Islam
- Nation of Islam and antisemitism
- Racism in the Arab world
- Religious terrorism
- Stochastic terrorism
- Clerical fascism
- Fundamentalism
- Religious nationalism
- Religious violence
- Sectarian violence
References
- ^ a b Fighting the War and the Peace: Battlefield Ethics, Peace Talks, Treaties, and Pacifism in the Jewish Tradition. Michael J. Broyde, 1998, p. 1
- ^ a b *Reuven Firestone (2004), "Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An examination of key sources" in Beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Fordham Univ Press, 2004, pp. 77, 81.
- Goldsmith (Ed.), Emanuel S. (1991). Dynamic Judaism: the essential writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan. Fordham Univ Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-8232-1310-2.
- Spero, Shubert (1983). Morality, halakha, and the Jewish tradition. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. pp. 137–318. ISBN 0-87068-727-1.
- Goldsmith (Ed.), Emanuel S. (1991). Dynamic Judaism: the essential writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan. Fordham Univ Press. p. 181.
- ^ Carl. S. Ehrlich (1999) "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill.
- ^ ISBN 0-691-12491-4.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-050533-8.
- ^ a b The Columbus Platform: The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism, 1937
- ^ "The Co-existence of Violence and Non-Violence in Judaism". Retrieved 2010-12-09.
- ^ Burns, J. Patout (1996). War and its discontents: pacifism and quietism in the Abrahamic traditions. Georgetown University Press. p. 18.
- ^ a b Halacha File: The Halacha of Rodef and the Rabin Shooting Archived 2005-04-27 at the Wayback Machine. Koltorah.org (2004-11-20). Retrieved on 2010-10-27.
- ProQuest 260532996 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved April 18, 2024. (subscription required)
- ProQuest 2664895284 Haaretz. Retrieved April 18, 2024. (subscription required)
- ISBN 978-0789004789
- ^ Lemche, Niels Peter, The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 315–316:"The [Biblical] story of the 'morally supreme people' that defeats and exterminates another, inferior, nation was part of the ideological baggage of European imperialists and colonizers throughout the nineteenth century. It was also carried by European Jews who,... migrated to Palestine to inherit their ancestral country … In this modern version of the biblical narrative, the Palestinian population turned into 'Canaanites', supposed to be morally inferior to the Jews, and of course the Arabs were never considered their equals … The Bible was the instrument used to suppress the enemy".
- ^ Greenberg, Moshe, "On the Political User of the Bible in Modern Israel: An Engaged Critique", in Pomegranates and golden bells: studies in biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern ritual, law, and literature, Eisenbrauns, 1995, pp. 467–469:
No "national" commandment such as that of "conquest and settling the land" occurs in any of these [Judaic] summaries [of the Torah]… [arguments for applying herem to modern Israel] introduces a distinction that Scripture does not recognize; nowhere are the obligations referred to in the summaries contingent on the achievement of the land-taking or the destruction of Israel's enemies. To suppose that they may be set aside or suspended for the accomplishment of national ends is a leap far beyond scripture.... The [biblical] injunctions to take the land are embedded in narrative and give the appearance of being addressed to a specific generation, like the commandment to annihilate or expel the natives of Canaan, which refers specifically to the seven Canaanite nations... Now, had there been any inclination to generalize the law [of extermination], it would have been easy for the talmudic sages to [do so]. But in fact the sages left the ancient herem law as they found it: applying to seven extinct nations.
- ^ Johnson, 1987. Quote: "[The Maccabees] saw themselves as reliving the Book of Joshua, reconquering the Promised Land from the pagans." (p. 106)
- ^ Johnson, 1987. Quote: "Abundant evidence of services in the fort's synagogue and parts of fourteen scrolls of Biblical, sectarian and apocryphal books indicate that this was a G-d fearing garrison of militants, profoundly influenced by the terrible power of Jewish literature." (p. 140)
- ^ Johnson, 1987. Quote: "A rabbinic source says [Bar Kokhba] was recognized as Messiah by the greatest scholar of the age, the rabbi Akiva ben Joseph." (p. 141)
- ^ Johnson, 1987. Quote: "From the fragments of evidence we have, it looks as if Simon [bar Kokhba] got little support from learned Jews and in the end lost what he had...The men of the rebellion were orthodox Jews who took great trouble, despite desperate circumstances, to observe the Mosaic law...But there is no evidence that Simon regarded himself as a Messiah, the anointed one or in any way a spiritual leader...He was in every respect a secular ruler, a nasi as he calls himself in his letters, harsh, practical, unbending, ruthless...The later rabbinic legends woven around the 'Son of a Star' seem to have no basis in fact. Simon was more of a prototype for a modern Zionist fighter: unromantic and professional, a man who lived and died a guerrilla and nationalist." (p. 142)
- ^ Asa-el, Amotz (5 September 2017) "Genius: Spiritual Zionism's Great Opportunity", The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ Kessler, Oren (1 May 2021) 1921 Jaffa Riots 100 Years On: Mandatory Palestine's 1st 'Mass Casualty' Attack", The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ "Ethics – The IDF Spirit". IDF Spokesperson's Unit. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ISBN 0-89608-601-1.
- Mattot [Numbers 31] which contains the commandment to exact revenge against the Midianites by slaying every male and every female old enough to engage in sexual intercourse.... I used to think that were they [Midianites] suddenly to appear, no Jew would be willing to carry out such a commandment. Then Baruch Goldstein appeared on the scene, and he was followed by Yigal Amir and now I am not sure.... I find the commandment to commit genocideagainst the Midianite unacceptable. To accept the commandment to do the same to "the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Peruzzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites" seems to me to make permissible the Holocaust, the attempted genocide of the Jewish people.
- ^ Lustick, Ian, For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, Council on Foreign Relations, 1988.
- ^ Flavius Josephus Antiquities 13.257–258
- ^ Aristobulus
- ^ Harold W. Attridge, Gōhei Hata (eds.). Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism. Wayne State University Press, 1992: p. 387.
- ^ Maurice Sartre. The Middle East Under Rome. Harvard University Press, 2005: p. 15.
- ^ William Horbury. The Cambridge History of Judaism 2 Part Set: Volume 3, The Early Roman Period Cambridge University Press, 1999: p. 599.
- ^ Bowersock 2013, p. 83.
- ^ a b c Bowersock 2013, p. 85.
- ^ "Historians back BBC over Jewish massacre claim". The Jewish Chronicle. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
- ^ Jacques Ryckmans, La persécution des chrétiens himyarites au sixième siècle Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Inst. in het Nabije Oosten, 1956 pp. 1–24.
- ^ Lewis, Harry Samuel (1915). Liberal Judaism and social service. Bloch Pub. Co. p. 37.
Judaism lex talionis.
- ISBN 978-0-567-02682-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7425-4366-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8091-4179-1.
- ^
- Sanhedrin 11:1 specifies strangulation
- Neusner, Jacob, Comparing religions through law: Judaism and Islam, pp. 107–111
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58330-732-8. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
- ^ Louis Isaac Rabinowitz (2008). "Capital Punishment. In Practice in the Talmud". Encyclopedia Judaica. The Gale Group.
Similarly, the passage in Mishnah Makkot 1:10: "A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called a murderous one. R. Eleazar ben Azariah says 'Or even once in 70 years.' R. Tarfon and R. Akiva said, 'If we had been in the Sanhedrin no death sentence would ever have been passed'; Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: 'If so, they would have multiplied murderers in Israel.'
- ^ Menachem Elon (2008). "Capital Punishment. In the State of Israel". Encyclopedia Judaica. The Gale Group.
This refers to the statement in the Mishnah (Mak. 1:10; Mak. 7a) that a Sanhedrin that kills (gives the death penalty) once in seven years (R. Eleazer b. Azariah said: once in 70 years) is called "bloody" (ḥovlanit, the term "ḥovel" generally implying a type of injury in which there is blood).
- ISBN 978-0-674-51173-6.
- ^ a b Haim Hermann Cohn (2008). "Capital Punishment. Talmudic Law". Encyclopedia Judaica. The Gale Group.
- ISBN 978-1-55553-862-0.
- ^ a b Menachem Elon (2008). "Capital Punishment. In the State of Israel". Encyclopedia Judaica. The Gale Group.
- ISBN 978-1-58023-425-2.
- ^ Free Bible Version...
- ^ Megilat Esther – the Jewish Magazine
- ^ Lustick, Ian, For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. Quote: "Of decisive importance to Jewish fundamentalists is their belief that contemporary political developments are part of an unfolding cosmic drama that will determine, depending on the willingness of Jews to act decisively on its behalf, whether God's redemption of his people Israel, and of the whole world, will or will not soon reach its completion…. The massacre in the Hebron mosque on the Jewish holiday of Purim is a tragic, but telling, example. Preceded by a rash of killings of Jewish settlers by Muslim fundamentalists … it is not in the least a coincidence that the massacre took place on the Jewish holiday of Purim. For most Jews Purim means listening to .. the Book of Esther .. .It is an occasion for merry-making, games, charity and the exchange of gifts. But as Goldstein sat reading that same book on Purim even in 1994, it is almost certain he identified Yasir Arafat with Haman, the arch-enemy of the Jews of ancient Persia, and the killing of Jewish settlers over the previous months with Haman's murderous designs. Accordingly, he [Goldstein] focused on often-ignored verses at the end of the book [of Esther] which, for Jewish fundamentalists, capture the essence of the story under contemporary circumstances and contain a divine imperative to act. According to the Book of Esther the Jews are saved by the king who reverses Haman's evil decree and declares instead that Jews may do unto their enemies what their enemies had intended to do unto them 'to stand up for themselves, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might assault them, with their little ones and women' (Esther 8:11) ... By mowing down Arabs he believed wanted to kill Jews, Goldstein was re-enacting part of the Purim story." (pp. ix–xi.)
- ^ Quotes from Horowitz 2006, p. 16: "This book deals not only with the theme of Amalek and responses – Christian as well as Jewish – to the book of Esther over the centuries, but also with Jewish violence connected with the holiday of Purim, from the early fifth century to the late twentieth." :p. 19: "The first [part of this book] is devoted ... to the book of Esther … Was it a book that promoted cruel vengeance ...? Since according to Jewish law the Amalekites, including women and children, had to be utterly destroyed, thinking about Amalek involved … thinking about the possibilities of, and justifications for, Jewish violence. [The second part of this book includes discussion of] one specific form of Jewish violence over many centuries - the descration of the cross and other Christian images…. [chapter 8 is] devoted to violence against Christians, sometimes within the context of the Purim festiviy, in the 5th–7th centuries. Chapter 9 carries the subject of Purim violence into the medieval and early modern Europe, especially against the background of the often violent rites of Carnival."
- ^ Bayme, Steven, "Saddam, Haman, and Amalek", in Jewish arguments and counterarguments: essays and addresses, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2002: Quote: "For many centuries Purim has been a source of both joy and embarrassment for Jews ... Still others have challenged the doctrine of violence associated with the holiday… Martin Luther, for one, accused the Jews of bloodthirsty and vengeful spirit in the Book of Esther… [Luther] reflect[s] the close association of Purim with the biblical doctrine of war against the Amalek. The theme of Jewish violence against Haman and his supporters, the doctrine of Amalek, has caused Jews the greatest discomfort with the Book of Esther and the holiday with which it is associated ... Judaism teaches that violence is justified under certain circumstances – particularly defense against aggression ... Amalek, the rabbis argue, is the eternally irreconcilable enemy who represents a value system that promotes murder ... Herein lies the enduring relevance of Purim. Aggression must be stopped and evil eliminated ... The meaning of Purim is relevant to the question of the war in the Persian Gulf today [2002] ... [Saddam Hussein's] unprovoked Scud missile attacks against entirely civilian targets in Israel are reminiscent of Amaleks's treacherous attacks upon the ... Israelites...." (pp. 75–80)
- ^ The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition Michael David Coogan (Ed). Quote:"Jews and Christians have also been troubled by the story's [Book of Esther] enthusiastic account of the violence of the Jewish community's response to their enemies, which involved not only self defense but also the slaughter of women and children, including the sons of Haman. The bloodthirsty language, however, derives from the story's symmetric pattern of reversals ..." (p. 708)
- ^ Gopin, Marc, Between Eden and Armageddon: the future of world religions, violence, and peacemaking, Oxford University Press US, 2000. Quote : "I have known many Orthodox rabbis, for example, who would be happy to ensure that a holiday such as Purim, with its obligatory reading of the Book of Esther, which cluminates with the slaughter of the people – including their children – who tried to exterminate the Jewish people, would never be used to justify the killing of anyone today. They certainly are deeply ashamed by Baruch Goldstein's mass murder at the Hebron mosque, which was inspired in part by Purim ... They can and do give moralistic sermons, and they can and do interpret the story in less violent terms ... The hermeneutic give and take of Purim is but one example of the way in which a deeply embedded tradition will not disappear even when many people reject its implicit message of violence ... It is not likely [that Purim would diminish in importance] in the current climate of religious revivalism, but it is possible that the violence of the story could be overshadowed with time by the numerous benevolent characteristics of the holiday, such as aiding the poor ... Jewish empowerment allows for a new hermeneutic that could centralize the violence of the story. If the political situation were to rapidly deteriorate, it is conceivable that Purim could become for radical Jews what Ramadan has become for radical Muslims in Algeria, a killing season ... Even the most radically pacifist Jews that I know do not eliminate this holiday, although they do not really know what to do with sacralized violence yet, and are now only evolving a spiritual and ritual reworking of traumatic and violent episodes." (pp. 52–53)
- ^ Nirenberg, David, Communities of violence: persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 1998. Quote:"There is evidence … that Jews could use ritual violence to criticize the Christians in whose lands they dwelled An obvious example is Purim, on which see E. Horowitz, The Rite to Be Reckless ..; and for a late medieval Iberian example, S. Levy, "Notas sobre el 'Purrim de Zaragoza", Anuario do Filologia 5 (1979): 203–217. (p. 220)
- ^ Gonen, Jay Y., Yahweh versus Yahweh: the enigma of Jewish history, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2005. Quote :"In 1994, on Purim day, Jewish physician Baruch Goldstein burst into an Arab Mosque in Hebron … and sprayed Arab worshipers who were kneeling in prayer with bullets from an automatic weapon. Twenty-nine Palestinians were killed before the enraged crowd tore him to pieces. It was a shameful day in Jewish history, the memory of which should be injected into all future Purim celebrations as a sober reminder of the potential barbarism that is hidden within the old myths of vengeance wrought by the Sons of Israel upon their enemies…. [Baruch's] memorial plaque affirmed that 'he was murdered for the sanctification of the Name…'. In this manipulative phrasing the old Jewish ethos of martyrdom, the sanctification of the Name, was given new meaning - messianic, activist, and murderous…. Purim celebrations in Israel in 2001 were again blotted by ugly incidents. As Jewish hotheadedness increased … harassments of Palestinians took place. During Purim it was a mitzvah, or good deed, to sock it to the modern Amalekites… In Jerusalem dozens of Jews gathered in the Sabath Square, pelted cars with stones, tried to set a minibus on fire, and threw various objects at residents of the Arab quarter. In Zion Gate Jews beat up Palestinians, calling them 'dirty Arabs' and 'terrorists'. One drunken Jew who wounded an Arab in the eye subsequently attacked the police as he was arrested. There was no loss of life in these incidents, but this cannot be said about the Baruch Goldstein precedence of violence that was deliberately injected into the Purim ritual. And if it has become a Purim commandment to drink and then attack Arabs, how should the Arabs react?" (pp. 63–64)
- ^ Robins, Robert S. and Post, Jerrold M., Political paranoia: the psychopolitics of hatred, Yale University Press, 1997. Quote: "On February 25, 1994, when Dr. Baruch Goldstein walked into the mosque atop the Tomb of the patriarchs in Hebron and fired his automatic weapon into the worshipping Muslims, killing or wounding at least 130 of them … Also on the night before ... Goldstein had read … from the Book of Esther which tells the story of the Jewish festival of Purim ... Purim [Baruch's] friend explained 'is a holiday to kill the people who are trying to kill the Jews'" ... For most Jews Purim is a joyous celebration of deliverance. But for some it is a celebration of violence, commemorating an uprising of the Jews against their enemies, a day of righteous wrath when 'the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them' (Esther 9:1)." (pp. 162–163)
- ^ Hunter, Alastair G. "Denominating Amalek: Racist stereotyping in the Bible and the Justification of Discrimination" in Sanctified aggression: legacies of biblical and post biblical vocabularies, Jonneke Bekkenkamp, Yvonne Sherwood (Eds), Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. Quote: Hunter quotes Arthur Waskow on p. 103: "on hearing of the murderous attack by Baruch Goldstein": "I know at once that this is no isolated crazy, this 'Baruch Goldstein' who has murdered forty of my cousins. I know at once, he has decided on this Purim to 'blot out the memory of the Amalek' not with a noise maker but with a machine gun… So then, in our generation, for some Jews the Palestinians become Amalek."
- ^ Boustan, Ra'anan S., Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity, Brill, 2010. Quote: "... Christians had grown apprehensive at what they perceived, not without reason, as the ill-will that Jews harbored against the Christian Church… Such concerns are already reflected in the legislation passed in 408 CE against the alleged Jewish practice of burning Haman in effigy on 'a form made to resemble the sainted cross' during the festival of Purim, which the authorities suspected was a gesture of ridicule aimed at the Savior himself…. And, indeed, a verse parody in Jewish Aramaic ... which features Jesus Christ amid a host of Israel's enemies ... justifying the punishment of Haman and bewailing their own cruel fates, may suggest that the dim view of Purim taken by Christian authorities was far from baseless." (p. 218)
- ^ Hebron Jews: memory and conflict in the land of Israel, by Jerold S. Auerbach, p. 137
- "Aside from an alleged 'great slaughter' of local Christians by Galilee Jews after the Persian invasion of Jerusalem in 614 CE, which other scholars believed to be dubious, evidence for repetitive Jewish violence on Purim through the centuries was exceedingly meager: occasional episodes of stone throwing, the spilling of 'rancid oil' on a Jewish convert, mockery of the Christian cross, and a total of three recorded Purim deaths inflicted by Jews in a span of more than 1,000 years…. Then, during the annual Purim parade in Hebron five years later [in 1986] a Jewish settler placed a keffiyah on an effigy of Haman, infuriating local Arabs."
- Commentary Magazine
- ^ Quote from Horowitz 2006 p. 4: "On [Purim in 1994] Dr. Baruch Goldstein .. opened fire, with his army-issued semi-automatic rifle, on dozens of Muslims who were praying inside the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing twenty nine. At the time [I was writing] a Hebrew version of an article about the history of Purim violence … as I saw the raucous celebrations in the center of Jerusalem continuing unabated, that there was a clear connection between past Purims and the present one was both exhilarating and disturbing… And the Sabbath before Purim … opens with the command to 'remember what th Amalek did' and concludes with .. the … exhortation to 'blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven'.
- ^ Hunter, Alastair G. "Denominating Amalek: Racist stereotyping in the Bible and the Justification of Discrimination" in Sanctified aggression: legacies of biblical and post biblical vocabularies, Jonneke Bekkenkamp, Yvonne Sherwood (Eds), Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. Hunter quotes Arthur Waskow on p. 103: "on hearing of the murderous attack by Baruch Goldstein": "I know at once that this is no isolated crazy, this 'Baruch Goldstein' who has murdered forty of my cousins. I know at once, he has decided on this Purim to 'blot out the memory of the Amalek' not with a noise maker but with a machine gun… So then, in our generation, for some Jews the Palestinians become Amalek."
- ^ Gopin, Marc, Between Eden and Armageddon: the future of world religions, violence, and peacemaking, Oxford University Press US, 2000, pp. 52–53.
- ^ New, David S. Holy war: the rise of militant Christian, Jewish, and Islamic fundamentalism, McFarland, 2002, pp. 147–148
- ^ Auerbach, Jerold S, Hebron Jews: memory and conflict in the land of Israel, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009, p. 137
- ^ a b c Daniel Estrin for The Forward and Haaretz Jan. 22, 2010 "The King's Torah: a rabbinic text or a call to terror?"
- ^ Weisburd, Jewish Settler Violence, Penn State Press, 1985, pp. 20–52
- ^ Lustick, Ian, "Israel's Dangerous Fundamentalists", Foreign Policy, 68 (Fall 1987), pp. 118–139
- ^ Tessler, Mark, "Religion and Politics in the Jewish State of Israel", in Religious resurgence and politics in the contemporary world, (Emile Sahliyeh, Ed). SUNY Press, 1990 pp. 263–296.
- ^ Haberman, Clyde (1994-03-01). "West Bank Massacre: The Overview; Rabin Urges the Palestinians To Put Aside Anger and Talk". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ Rabbi slams Jewish 'hooligans' - Israel News, Ynetnews. Ynetnews.com (1995-06-20). Retrieved on 2010-10-27.
- ^ The ethics of war in Asian civilizations: a comparative perspective By Torkel Brekke, Routledge, 2006, p. 44
- ^ Morris 2008, pp. 126–128.
- ^ a b Judaism and the ethics of war, Norman Solomon. International Review of the Red Cross. Volume 87 Number 858 June 2005
- ^
- Weisburd, David (1985). Jewish Settler Violence. Penn State Press. p. 65. ISBN 0-271-02673-1.
- Bruce, Steve (2008). Fundamentalism. Polity. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-7456-4075-4.
- Ehud Sprinzak, "From Messianic Pioneering to Vigilante Terrorism: The Case of the Gush Emunim Underground", in Inside terrorist organizations David C. Rappoport (Ed.), Routledge, 2001. pp. 194–214.
- Weisburd, David (1985). Jewish Settler Violence. Penn State Press. p. 65.
- ^
- Saleh Abdel Jawad (2007) "Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War" in Israel and the Palestinian refugees, Eyal Benvenistî, Chaim Gans, Sari Hanafi (Eds.), Springer, p. 78:
- ".. the Zionist movement, which claims to be secular, found it necessary to embrace the idea of 'the promised land' of Old Testament prophecy, to justify the confiscation of land and the expulsion of the Palestinians. For example, the speeches and letter of Chaim Weizman, the secular Zionist leader, are filled with references to the biblical origins of the Jewish claim to Palestine, which he often mixes liberally with more pragmatic and nationalistic claims. By the use of this premise, embraced in 1937, Zionists alleged that the Palestinians were usurpers in the Promised Land, and therefore their expulsion and death was justified. The Jewish-American writer Dan Kurzman, in his book Genesis 1948 … describes the view of one of the Deir Yassin's killers: 'The Sternists followed the instructions of the Bible more rigidly than others. They honored the passage (Exodus 22:2): 'If a thief be found …' This meant, of course, that killing a thief was not really murder. And were not the enemies of Zionism thieves, who wanted to steal from the Jews what God had granted them?'
- Carl. S. Ehrlich (1999) "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill. pp. 117–124.
- ISBN 1-57181-971-1.
- ISBN 1-4129-7324-4. Retrieved 2010-03-13.. Indeed, that was exactly the way in which his actions were interpreted by other settlers at Kiryat Arba, and in the years to come after 1994, there would be numerous instances in which the settlers would also celebrate Purim by invoking Goldstein's memory and image in a provocative manner.
Although Goldstein did not say anything during his attack to explain his actions it is known that the night before his assault he had attended a service at the Jewish side of the Cave of the Patriarchs where after listening to the traditional reading from the Scroll of Esther, he told others who were there that they should all behave like Esther. The timing of his attack at the same site the next day hardly seems to be the product of happenstance or coincidence. It was the day of Purim. Moreover, although his actions seemed to be the product of a mind that had snapped or become depraved, there did not seem to be any sign that he was suffering from a mental disorder. His actions were deliberate and intentional. Goldstein was troubled by the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in Oslo and he was openly concerned that a Palestinian state was about to be created. His attack on Muslim worshippers at the same site, while Purim coincided with Ramadan, was an attempt to symbolically cast himself in the story as Mordecai
- ^ "When Fury Rules". Time. March 7, 1994. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-28. (subscription required)
- ^ Settlers remember gunman Goldstein; Hebron riots continue. Avi Issacharoff and Chaim Levinson, Haaretz, 28 February 2010
- ^ Khalid Amayreh (20 May 2004). "Rabbi supports killings in Rafah". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ "The List: The World's Worst Religious Leaders". foreignpolicy.com. April 2008 (original article no longer available online). Copies are cached at Google.com and reproduced on richarddawkins.net Archived 2011-02-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ Haaretz, 2010 Aug. 23, "Those Noisy Barbarians, Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Hebron, Doesn't Want Jews to Take on Boogie-Woogie from the Jungle," http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/those-noisy-barbarians-1.309629
- ^ a b "Does the Torah back burning mosques?" by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. The Jewish Chronicle Online. 22 October 2010.
- ^ "Palestinian mosque torched in suspected 'price tag' operation by settlers." by Avi Issacharoff. Haaretz.
- ^ "Arsonists torch mosque in West Bank village" by Diaa Hadid. Associated Press.
- ^ a b "Chief rabbi: Palestinian mosque burning harkens to Kristallnacht" by Anshel Pfeffer. Haaretz.
- ^ "Settlers replace Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attack". Reuters.
- ^ "Board slams West Bank mosque arson". The Jewish Chronicles Online. October 7, 2010.
- ^ "Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is the alleged author of a book which deems as legal, according to 'Jewish law,' the killing of non-Jews" by Chaim Levinson. Haaretz.
- ^ "Yitzhar rabbi suspected of incitement" by Ben Hartman. Jpost.com.
- ^ "Yitzhar rabbi detained by police". Investigators suspect Elitzur-Hershkowitz of racial incitement by Yaakov Lappin.Jpost.com.
- ISBN 978-0674036239.
- ^ Giles MacDonogh. 1938: Hitler's Gamble. p. 217.
- ^ Kirsch, Jonathan The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan, New York: W.W. Norton, p. 237.
- ^ Prempain, Laurence; Wyler, Manuela. "Kristalnacht 9-19 novembre 1938". Jewishtraces.org (in French). Archived from the original on 26 September 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ^ Schwab (1990). p. 41
- ^
Free Judaism and religion in Israel. Free Judaism in association with Milan Press. 1999. p. 47. ISBN 978-965-7111-00-0.
- ^ Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, 14 November 2005 Rabbinic response: Jewish Law on the Killing of Yitzhak Rabin. Quote: "First of all, the law of the pursuer only applies to a spontaneous act, whereas Yigal Amir planned this assassination for two years. Secondly, the law of the pursuer is only intended to save a potential victim from imminent death. There is absolutely no proof that withdrawing from certain territories will directly lead to the death of any Jews. On the contrary, Prime Minister Rabin, over half the members of the Knesset, and over half the population of Israel believe exactly the opposite - that it will save Jewish lives. Lastly, this law does not refer to elected representatives, for if Yitzhak Rabin was really a pursuer, then so are all his followers and that would mean that Amir should have killed over half the population of Israel! In other words, even according to the law of the pursuer, this act was totally futile and senseless since the peace process will continue."
- ^ Weiss, Steven I. (2010-02-26). "The Ghosts of Purim Past: The holiday's violent beginnings – and what they mean for the Jewish future".
- ^ "Violence and Vengeance: Purim and Good Friday". Dialogika. Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. 1998-03-28.
- ^ U.S. Dept. of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2004. April 2005
- ^ U.S. Appeals Court Affirms Designation of Kahane Chai, Kach as Terrorist Groups Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
- ^ Kach, Kahane Chai (Israel, extremists)[permanent dead link] Council for Foreign Relations, 20 March 2008
- ^ Lustick Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine For The Land and The Lord: The Evolution of Gush Emunim, by Ian S. Lustick
- ^ Pedahzur, Ami, and Arie Perliger (2009). Jewish Terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press. pp. 33–36
- ^ a b Anti-Defamation League on JDL Archived 2010-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 1-57488-779-3.
- ^ Federal Bureau of Investigation - Congressional Testimony Archived 2009-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "JDL group profile from the National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism". Archived from the original on 2010-08-28. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ Kahane Chai (KACH) Archived 2007-03-06 at the Wayback Machine Public Safety Canada
- ^ Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) U.S. Department of State, 11 October 2005
- ^ Council Decision of 21 December 2005 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Decision 2005/848/EC Official Journal of the European Union, 23 December 2005
- ISBN 978-0-8264-1779-4.
- ISBN 978-0-06-082614-7.
- ISBN 978-90-6831-372-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8232-2335-0.
- ISBN 978-0800628833.
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